Wellbeing Wins
Welcome to ‘Wellbeing Wins’!
Within the Wellbeing Wins section of the newsletter we want to focus on all the ‘wins’ that students are having when it comes to their wellbeing and success, as well as communicate home some strategies on improving the wellbeing of our young people.
In the Wellbeing Wins section of the newsletter you will find the following updates from the Camden High School Wellbeing Team:
Wellbeing Programs - Progress and impact of Wellbeing programs being run at school
The Big Picture - Recent data, information and trends pertaining to young people’s wellbeing
On the Ground - Staff and student perspectives on Camden High School activities
Improving Wellbeing - Tips and tricks for parents/carers, students and community members on how to improve the wellbeing of young people
We hope this section will shine a light on all the hard work that students are putting in at Camden High School and provide some tools for our young people to continually improve their own experiences!
Wellbeing Programs
The Study without Stress Program for our incoming Year 12 is in full swing for our first small group of students.
So far we have covered topics such as:
What stress is and how we experience stress
The link between situations, thoughts, feelings and actions
Goal Setting
Timetabling – with a focus on Study / Life balance
The importance of relaxation
The response from our new Year 12 students has been very positive, with many more mindset shifting sessions to come throughout the term on more topics such as learning to challenge unhelpful thoughts and overcoming procrastination or perfectionism.
Our small group of Year 7 students have completed their first few sessions of the RAP-A Program. The first few weeks have been a fun and meaningful journey into building resilience and emotional strength by learning about what inner resources we already have. The program uses the familiar story of The Three Little Pigs as a metaphor—just like the pig who built a sturdy house of bricks, students are learning how to build their own strong and “houses” to stand up to life’s challenges.
Each week, students add new “bricks” to their personal houses—things like Personal Strengths Bricks, Keeping Calm Bricks, and Problem-Solving Bricks—to help them grow their emotional toolkit.
The program also adds in practical skills from cognitive-behavioural therapy, such as staying calm, thinking in helpful ways, and solving problems effectively, and interpersonal skills that focus on understanding others, managing conflict, and maintaining positive relationships.
Above all, the RAP-A Program helps students develop strategies to protect and strengthen their self-esteem, even when life gets tough. It’s all about giving our young people the tools they need to feel confident, capable, and connected.
The Big Picture
The Federal government is about to introduce age restrictions on social media platforms for young people. Currently, social media has been highlighted as one of the biggest impactors on mental and physical health for young people.
The restrictions aim to reduce the risk of harm that social media and its misuse can have on teens. Come December 10th, platforms like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok are likely to be removing profiles of individuals that are under 16 years of age.
Now is a good time to start having conversations with your child(ren) about the reasons for this, the impact it may have on them but also the positive benefits this will create and how to navigate the feelings of anxiety and stress of losing their profiles.
For more information on the impending restrictions go here:
Social Media Age Restrictions - (eSafety Commissioner)
How will it work? - (news article)
For more information on the impact that social media, screens and tech use has been having on young people over the last decade check out the work of Jonathon Haidt https://jonathanhaidt.com/ and Nathan Wallis https://www.nathanwallis.com/
On The Ground ...
Improving Wellbeing
Exercise – with lot’s of winter sport having wrapped up now late in the year, it is important for young people to still be getting 30-60 mins a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day.
Year 7 Camp
Our Adventures at Camp!
- Written by Ava Pollard and Dre Sparks, 7G
Camp was such a fun experience, and we are so glad that we went—here's why!
As soon as we got off the bus, we were amazed; beautiful bushland stretched further than we could ever imagine. The camp was held at Stanwell Tops, and we couldn't think of a better place to be. It had everything from abseiling to giant swings to high ropes courses and more. You could literally spend a week there and not get bored. We had heard from previous years that the food wasn't too good, but it was actually quite alright. We were fed often, and we also enjoyed morning and afternoon tea, which consisted of delicious cakes and fruit.
We learned to work together with people we hadn’t even thought about talking to, which was actually fun because we made some new friends as well. The purpose of this camp was to learn teamwork, build connections, and develop resilience - all of which happened during our time there. Through team challenges, we understood the importance and power of working together and how to be resilient in tough and stressful situations, such as the survivor challenges where we had to complete various activities, like manoeuvring our teammates through twisted ropes and getting our whole team to the other side of an obstacle course. ... ... ... Click here for video of the 'Bubble-Ball' Challenge
At first, many people were nervous about anything involving heights, like the high rope's courses and abseiling. However, we all helped and encouraged each other to face our fears. There were so many great and fun experiences at camp: from being in the cabins, consuming way too many lollies late at night, to watching our friends conquer the abseiling cliff. We learned to work together with those around us and face challenges, even if it meant stepping outside of our comfort zones.
Some of the highlights were: going high and fast on the giant swing while taking in the stunning view from the top of the mountains and playing card games with my cabinmates late at night trying not to laugh because we were meant to be asleep and talking about what the next day had to bring, and the silent disco in the auditorium on the second night after dinner and requesting and screaming our favourite songs and learning more about each other and becoming even more close with my friends, all the boys got really into it creating a conga line (click here for video) and walking around the room and shoutout to Mr Storey and Miss May for busting some great moves on the dancefloor. Overall camp was a great experience, and I hope our next camp can live up to the hype!
A MASSIVE thank you to all the teachers who organised the camp for us and for making it such a fun and memorable experience, one that we will cherish forever.